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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $350.00| Rating: 8

Pros:

Sharp, optical image stabilization, affordable

Cons:

sample-to-sample variability

I compared the Sony 50mm f1.8 OSS to the Zeiss 55mm f1.8 on a Sony Alpha a6000 in various shooting situations. The Sony lens is 1/3 the price of the Zeiss, or less.

Surprisingly the Sony (with rev 02 firmware) focused quicker in low light than the Zeiss, and could lock focus in some situations where the Zeiss only hunted. As observed by another writer in this thread, updated firmware for the Sony lens takes advantage of fast hybrid autofocus on the a6000 (NEX-7 doesn't have this feature). The Sony 50mm also grabbed more frames that were sharp at low shutter speeds, thanks to optical image stabilization, which the Zeiss doesn’t have.

This Sony 50mm is inferior to the optically superb Zeiss 55mm in contrast, color rendition, and flare resistance. But I had to look closely and repeatedly on a well-calibrated 27-inch monitor to see the difference.

Admittedly, I had to try three samples of the Sony lens to find one that performed to full potential. The first two were sharp at center, but fell off towards one side of the frame or the other at wider apertures.

Comparing these two lenses is apples-and-oranges, because the Zeiss 55mm covers full frame, the Sony 50 mm only APS-C. You could say I took the Zeiss slumming by comparing it to this much cheaper Sony lens. Still, I was surprised by how well my cherry-picked sample of the Sony 55mm f1.8 OSS performed.

Beachrider

Registered: December 2010Posts: 22

Sony E 50mm f/1.8 OSS SEL50F18 review by Beachrider

Review Date: 6/9/2013

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $300.00| Rating: 10

Not a pancake, no distance meter, not as fast focus as A-Mount w/LA-EA2

A very useful lens. All advanced tracking and field detection function while minimizing the limits of CDAF environment. Use with A6000 and upgraded firmware VASTLY improves focussing with Hybrid-AF on that camera.

brugj03

Registered: November 2012Posts: 8

Sony E 50mm f/1.8 OSS SEL50F18 review by brugj03

Review Date: 11/4/2012

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $300.00| Rating: 9

Pros:

Extremely sharp, well balanced on nex 7, very cheap for the performance,OSS and fast.

Cons:

Inconsistant production quality

Bought this lens as a short portrait and landscape lens.
It`s very sharp indeed even ad full aperture, which is a fast 1.8.

There are some issues with mechanical noise, i brought 1 back to the store which had severe mechanical noise, my current also has some noise but not that bad.
The focus ring turns very smooth and feels right.

I`m very pleased with the image quality which is contrasty and clear, the OSS makes this already fast lens even better which is incredible.

I would recommend this lens for all nex shooters. It`s great.

dugong5pm

Registered: October 2012Posts: 52

Sony E 50mm f/1.8 OSS SEL50F18 review by dugong5pm

Review Date: 10/20/2012

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $300.00| Rating: 8

Pros:

fast, sharp, has OSS, light, nicely build

Cons:

none

I wish all lenses were this good. It has so much values in a fairly low price. It has good performance, light, nicely build, and it has OSS too! this OSS can be really handy in most situations, considering this is more like a short telephoto lens (75mm equivalent). I think nothing to be complained about this lens. I use this along with the 16/2.8 and Sigma 30/2.8 (as a normal lens), and they never let me down.